


What You're Looking For (Has Been Here the Whole Time)

by yxurstruly



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, High School AU, Homecoming, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, Obliviousness, Pining, School Dance AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24653953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yxurstruly/pseuds/yxurstruly
Summary: Perfuma set down her immaculately-organized lunch box. “Once you two pick a color scheme, I’ll help you with corsages. My roses are at their prime right now and they probably won’t last much longer—”“Wait, what?” Adora cut in. “Color scheme? Corsages?”Adora's friends have her best interests at heart. But is Adora even aware of her own best interests?
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 88





	What You're Looking For (Has Been Here the Whole Time)

**Author's Note:**

> Something new! :)
> 
> Title is from "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift but that goes without saying.

_ come to the tree at lunch!! we’re gonna help u w catra!! _

Adora sent Glimmer back an affirmative, careful to keep her phone hidden under her desk. Phones were supposed to be completely shut off in fourth-period English, but it was more often than not that rules became guidelines in the minds of the students of Bright Moon High School.

At lunch, Adora was happy to see a large group of her friends gathered under the generous magnolia tree on campus that Perfuma had staked out on day one.

“Adora!” called Glimmer, looking up from her tinfoil-wrapped pizza as Adora approached. “Finally! We’ve been talking all weekend and we have the perfect plan.”

“Okay?” Adora laughed uneasily, settling down between Glimmer and Mermista. The fact that all of her friends had been making plans about her over the weekend was a little disconcerting, but they all seemed to be brimming with good intentions. And this Catra thing really was becoming a problem, especially with homecoming looming in the not-so-distant future.

“You’ve gotta start with baked goods,” Entrapta began as Adora tore into her school cafeteria lunch. “No girl is gonna argue with little cupcakes. We can bake ‘em together at my house after school tomorrow.”

So far a pretty typical plan from these people. Mermista was next, having swallowed her California roll:

“Then when you ask her about it, you’ve just gotta be super chill. Be yourself, though. And confidence is key. But  _ don’t _ —” she raised her voice as Seahawk tried to interject— “put on a show. No. No songs. For your own good.”

Here Adora was getting a bit confused, but she had faith that the plan would make sense once her friends finished explaining it.

Perfuma set down her immaculately-organized lunch box. “Once you two pick a color scheme, I’ll help you with corsages. My roses are at their prime right now and they probably won’t last much longer—”

“Wait, what?” Adora cut in. “Color scheme?  _ Corsages _ ?” She turned to the friend who seemed to have organized this whole thing and arched an eyebrow. “Glimmer?”

“Well, you want it to be the best homecoming proposal ever, don’t you?”

Adora glanced around the group. They all looked hopeful. Not one of them looked as lost as she felt. “Homecoming proposal?” She was stuck in question mode.

“Yeah,” Glimmer went on, sounding slightly worried now, “that’s what we thought you were talking about last Friday—was it not?”

“Last Friday?”

\- - -

“Out of my way, Adora,” Catra had growled, veering intentionally to nudge Adora into her locker.

“Catra! Why don’t you calm down for a second.”

“Why don’t  _ you _ calm down for a second,” Catra had snapped back. “You don’t always have to be right, you know.”

Adora had whipped around to face Catra. “The textbook left out some important details! I thought we should at least address—”

But Catra was already gone down the hallway, grumbling something about “little miss perfect” that Adora was rather glad she didn’t hear entirely.

Sighing and closing her locker, she turned to Glimmer and Bow, who had watched the whole thing play out with vaguely amused expressions. “I need to work things out with that girl,” she said, shaking her head as the trio set out for Bow’s minivan (Adora didn’t have a car and Glimmer had technically been grounded). “And soon. Think of the mess homecoming’s gonna be if I don’t talk to her before then.”

Glimmer and Bow exchanged a glance that went unnoticed by Adora, who had been catching up on the Snaps Perfuma had sent her during last period.

\- - -

“No,” clarified Adora, finally catching up. “When I said I needed to work things out, I just meant talk to her and set our friendship right so she wouldn’t try anything petty at homecoming.”

“So you weren’t planning on asking her to the dance?” asked Bow, confusion and (if Adora didn’t know any better) disappointment evident on his face.

“No,” Adora repeated, chuckling uncomfortably and feeling her face heat up. She slid a hand up the back of her neck. “Why would you guys think that?”

The group exchanged a collective glance. Adora reeled. She had been on the outside before, but never in this group. Her insides curled.

“Well,” Glimmer began, the group’s nonverbally elected spokeswoman, “it’s because you two are always flirting with each other, and we thought you were totally ready to make the first move.”

“‘We’?” Adora tried to wrap her head around this apparently conspicuous observation.

“All of us,” Perfuma clarified.

“It’s not like you two aren’t obvious,” Mermista added unhelpfully. “We were gonna find out eventually.”

“Wait,” Adora cut in, grasping for any kind of order among the chaos. “You’ve got it all wrong. I don’t have feelings for Catra. Not like that.”

Bow was agape. “Are you sure about that?”

“Uh, yeah—”

“So you don’t feel a thing when she touches you, grabs your wrist, anything?” Mermista barged in.

“She is really charming around you, even if I don’t fully get her style,” chimed in Perfuma. “You’re always blushing when she says hi to you.”

“Especially when she sneaks up on you!” added Entrapta.

Adora’s mind whirled. “Catra and I have a complicated friendship, okay? She doesn’t—we don’t—”

“Guys, stop grilling her,” said Glimmer. “Don’t you see she’s uncomfortable?”

Adora had hardly registered her own discomfort before Glimmer had pointed it out. Weirdly shaken, she wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and wondered why she suddenly wasn’t feeling so hungry.

“Maybe we made a mistake,” Glimmer continued. “Adora, whatever it is you want with Catra, we’ll help you with it, okay?”

“We can still make mini cupcakes after school tomorrow, though, right?” asked Entrapta.

Adora laughed, trying to loosen up. “Of course.”

\- - -

The car ride home that day was quiet. Adora had opted for the backseat, so Glimmer accompanied Bow up front. The two of them chatted idly together while Glimmer’s bedroom pop playlist filled the space between their words. Adora was uncharacteristically silent.

Then—

“Holy crap.”

Glimmer and Bow whipped around. Glimmer slapped Bow on the arm. “Eyes on the road. What is it?”

“I think I’m attracted to Catra. I mean, I think I have feelings for her.”

“No kidding,” Bow began, earning himself another slap on the arm from Glimmer.

“Well that’s fun! How did you figure it out?”

Adora sighed and turned to look out the window. “I don’t know. I mean, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you all said at lunch, and then she touched my hand in history—”

“Oh?”

“We had to share a textbook. She was shoving me. But that just made me think more. Even just the littlest things…” She sighed again. “A couple weeks ago she texted me asking to copy my notes and I couldn’t focus for the rest of the night.” Adora buried her face in her hands and groaned. “I’m so obvious! How did I not know?”

“Love is like that sometimes,” Bow supplied, eyes responsibly on the road.

“What do you know about love, Bow,” Glimmer joked (and if Adora had been paying attention, she may have noticed Bow glance away bashfully, ears aflame). “Adora, are you alright?”

“I just have…a lot to think about.”

Bow had pulled the van to a stop; he was dropping off Adora first.

“So is homecoming planning back on?” he asked hopefully as Adora unbuckled and slid out of the car.

She looked up at Bow. “You know what? Yeah. We’re doing this.” She began the ascent up her driveway, then paused and turned back. “Thanks, guys.”

Bow grinned. “Best friend squad!”

“Best friend squad,” Glimmer agreed as the two of them watched Adora make it safely to her front door, then took off for Glimmer’s house.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading & supporting! I am moon-jellie on tumblr and I am always up for non-spoilery conversation!


End file.
